Maverick Music Lassoes SSL XL-Desk

Suffolk, UK (May 30, 2018)—Media composer Lincoln Grounds of Maverick Music in the UK, which specializes in projects recorded with real instruments and accomplished musicians, recently purchased a Solid State Logic XL-Desk.

Grounds has more than 430 tracks logged with Audio Network, a music content provider for the production industries: "I get to pick and choose quite a lot of projects, including a lot of marimba-based tracks, orchestral tracks and a lot of Americana. For that, I go off to Nashville quite often," he says.

The XL-Desk, recently installed in Grounds' own Maverick Music studio, could be considered a traditional 24:8 analog console, but with a few twists, including a variety of routing and I/O options. It features dual input channel strips with SSL VHD (Variable Harmonic Drive) mic pres on the first eight and an additional 18 500 format rack slots available for processing or additional mic pres, accessible by channels and buses.

Grounds has numerous 500 format mic pres and EQs installed in the XL-Desk from several different manufacturers, as well as a different stereo compressor on each of the four buses, and two sets of monitors—large and small—permanently connected. A 500 format SSL bus compressor comes as standard and is hardwired into bus A, while an additional three buses (B, C, and D) can be summed into bus A as required, and a Cue Stereo Bus for headphone mix can be repurposed at mix down to give 40 summing inputs.

"It's important that I have lots of different mic press and lots of microphones," says Grounds, “and they all have their dedicated channel, and they are always plugged in. That way, there's no buzz-kill when I'm recording. I just have to unmute the channel and go. That's a big reason why I have a desk.

"The console is probably the biggest investment in a studio. It’s the first thing that gets switched on every day, and everything I record is going through it. I can't work without it, so it must work every single time; it must be reliable, and it has to sound great.”